Ayaz, Khursheed annoy over ministers’ absence from NA proceeding

ISLAMABAD, Sep 12 (APP): Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and
leader of Opposition Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah Tuesday expressed annoyance over
the absence of ministers from the House proceeding.
At the onset, Ayaz Sadiq observed that nobody was present in the House
from the government side to contest the bills scheduled to be laid on the private
members’ day and directed his staff to immediately call the concerned ministers.
“Private members” day is a scared day and I will not allow going it waste,” he said and
started taking up the agenda items.
He dropped a calling attention notice moved by Shakila Luqman, Zeb
Jaffar and Asiya Naz Tanoli regarding problems being faced by the students and parents
in getting admissions in colleges and schools of the Federal Capital, due to absence of the
movers.
Dr Fouzia Hameed and Dr Imran Khattak introduced a bill to amend the
Minimum Wages Ordinance, 1961 in its application to the Islamabad Capital Territory
(The Minimum Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2017) and a bill to amend the Right to Free and
Compulsory Education Act, 2012 (The Right to Free and Compulsory Education
(Amendment) Bill, 2017 respectively without any opposition.
Third bill regarding measures for an equitable distribution of
agricultural land (The Redistributive Land Reforms Bill, 2017) was being laid, when
Opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah drew attention of the Speaker towards absence
of ministers from the House.
Khursheed Shah asked the Speaker to prorogue the House as number of
government members was less and he was not in favour of pointing out the quorum.
He came hard on the government, saying “ministers kept sitting in their
chambers and do not bother to attend the House. It is a joke with the Parliament.”
The Speaker said only four members were present in the House when the
proceeding started today but he continued so that maximum bills, mostly from
opposition parties, could be introduced and sent to concerned committees without any
objection.
Khursheed Shah questioned about fate of other bills referred to the committees
since 2013.
Ayaz Sadiq said almost 95 percent bills, sent to concerned committees, were cleared by
NA bodies by rejecting or approving them, and a detailed report in this regard was
available, which would be presented in the House.
Khursheed Shah praised the role of Speaker Ayaz Sadiq for conducting the
House business in an efficient manner since 2013.
He said development funds should be given to all parliamentarians
without any discrimination so that they could start development projects in their
respective constituencies.